I play 2 Tor-Pit, any move by him could make my way difficuly... but he draws more cards. I connect to Mon then play 5 black.
He goes down to fe with 6 blue + 3 red to SLC. I have to overdraw to get 6 red. I finish with a 45 track. He found Hel La one turn before the end and decided not to draw a second time.
Relief, 1-0

2nd game :Sea La Cal SLC vs Bos Mia Ny Atl (his start)100 vs 85

He opens 6 orange 6 black 6 green. I have 10 blue and 8 white. I play most of my locos on 6 yellow. I have the bad idea of going to 44 cards and he lays 6 pink, 6 grey, 6 red, 5 white.
He's done in 8 moves. If I block LA Mia, I lose against small dead tix. If he has La mia, I lose.

Luckily he does not have it. Puff

3rd game : SF Atl Den Pitt vs LA NY Hel La (my start)124 vs 111

I open 6 orange, 4 green, then 6 pink. He plays 6 yellow 5 red, 1 to Port. If he has Port Nash, it may be tricky. I have no white to connect to SF. So, I try to be patient, going around Pitt, Atl, Mia, NO, to have him empty his hands of possible locos.
He goes to NY then LA

He hangs on his orange until the very last turn, but too late.
I can lay 5 white, he does not have 3 yellow or red to block SLC Denver. Only 43 can beat me. Pfiou !

1:0 (98:97)http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/2465/stl8.jpg
Por-Pho + Den-Pit vs SSM-Nas + Bos-Mia (SF-Atl discarded) + Start
I managed to get a 44-track with eastern Tics (leaving out Boston) - it was close but not enough. Should have drawn instead of hoping ... 1 out of 4 would have done it.

2,5:0,5 (116:116)http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/3069/qygn.jpg
Por-Nas + SSM-Okl + Start vs LA-NY + Por-Pho (Mon-NO discarded)
MV could close his "Big Loop" from Sea to Por in last round and therefore got longest ... drawing could give me the win as well as the loss ... decided not to draw - tie!

4,5:1,5 (110:62)http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/2919/650h.jpg
LA-Chi (again, 3rd time in a row) + SSM-Okl + Start vs LA-Mia + SF-Atl (Cal-SLC discarded)
MV was able to throw 6 black very early with far less than 30 cards and I found no proper way through the Midwest ... but not enough I wasted my only 2 blues unnecessarily and therefore didn't manage to get to Mia at the end.